Big, ugly, noisy bugs to invade Monroe County

Cicadas will emerge this year, and they could be making a racket soon in your neighborhood.

Comment

By JAMES HAGGERTY

poconorecord.com

By JAMES HAGGERTY

Posted Apr. 10, 2013 at 12:01 AM

By JAMES HAGGERTY
Posted Apr. 10, 2013 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

Cicadas will emerge this year, and they could be making a racket soon in your neighborhood.

The noisy, flying insects, which surface periodically along the East Coast, are due for a 17-year appearance in parts of northeastern Pennsylvania, according to Penn State Cooperative Extension.

"We will only know when they start to emerge how big the population will be," said Vincent Catrone, a forester at the Penn State extension office in West Pittston. "These are typical emergencies. There will be pockets of them."

Concentrations are expected to surface in 17 counties, according to Penn State, including Luzerne, Monroe and Wyoming.

After soil temperatures reach 64 degrees, cicadas usually emerge, from May to July. Cicada nymphs burrow up from the ground, where they have been feeding on plant root fluids, before shedding an exoskeleton and transforming to winged, 1.5-inch adults.

They do not sting, bite or harm crops or most trees. But they are loud, clumsy and creepy.

"Anybody who hates insects will be freaked out because they are so big," Catrone said.

"People get the heebie-jeebies," added Daniel Townsend, a University of Scranton biology professor. "If you get a swarm, it's like the Alfred Hitchcock phenomenon."

Amorous male cicadas emit an ear-splitting clicking noise, which is a mating call.

Detractors can take comfort in cicadas' short life span. They die off within weeks after reproducing and are not expected to re-emerge in the state until 2016.

Pennsylvania has eight broods of 17-year cicadas, said Greg Hoover, an entomologist at Penn State extension. Brood II cicadas will surface in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut and parts of New York, Virginia and North Carolina this season.